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According to the October 2 issue of Entertainment Weekly, advertising for The Invention of Lying, the new film from comedian Ricky Gervais, carefully conceals the atheistic subject matter of the movie. Writer Adam Markovitz explained that in the film, set in a world where everyone tells the truth, "The people...have no concept of heaven, faith, or God- until Gervais’ character fabricates ‘the man in the sky’ to placate them.’"

Markovitz observed, "What you don’t know- thanks to a carefully crafted marketing campaign- is the movie’s actual subject: religion." (The film’s distributors are Universal and Warner Bros.) The EW article quotes Gervais, who is himself a non-believer, insisting that the film is "not atheist propaganda."

Atheists don't believe in God so they can't possibly believe in blasphemy but they're naming their holiday "Blasphemy Day." I hope it makes sense to them somehow. LarryD has more:

Okay, let's see if I understand this correctly. Atheists don't believe in God. Atheists think people of faith are stupid. Atheists hold rationality and reason as the highest ideals, and rely on science to define Everything That There Is And Ever Shall Be. They hold no regard for anything supernatural or miraculous.

So why are they doing something so stupid, irrational and unreasonable as this?

Erin nails this one about the danger of putting yourself first on the priority list on the theory that if you're happy everyone else will be happy. It's a sort of trickle down theory on happiness. And it makes me a bit unsettled:

At first glance, there's nothing wrong with this advice from our First Lady:

WASHINGTON — First lady Michelle Obama says women should do what makes them happy, a lesson she says she learned after realizing her two children, her husband and her physical health feed off of her good moods.

In an interview appearing in the November issue of Prevention magazine, Mrs. Obama discusses the meaning of good health, aging and her exercise, diet and beauty routines. She sat for the interview at the White House in late July.

Like I said, nothing wrong with that, right? Pretty innocuous, puff-piece fodder. But then it gets a little interesting:

Mrs. Obama says she learned "what not to do" from her mother, Marian Robinson, who now lives at the White House. "She'd say being a good mother isn't all about sacrificing. It's really investing and putting yourself higher on your priority list," Mrs. Obama said. She said Robinson put her own two children first, sometimes to the detriment of herself.

Much has been written about Sarah Palin over the past year. It's surprising to see a writer take an angle that hasn't been discussed at length before. Frank Walker at Pewsitter does that. Good piece that even talks about what some Catholic leaders could learn from Sarah:

Sarah Palin is starting to slowly re-appear on the world scene. Now that she is free of the hopeless McCain campaign and no longer tied up in Alaska, she’s presenting a clear ideology with a potent delivery. It's a pure antidote to the current American pathology. Many U.S. Catholic leaders, so key to the liberal government’s ascendance, should try to hear what Sarah is ready to teach the country.

Most are European and unfamiliar, but among the people whose movies I’ll never watch again: Jonathan Demme, John Landis, Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, and, bless his heart, Woody Allen, who I guess was forced to sign lest the press seize on the idea of a guy who married his almost-stepdaughter passing judgment on Polanski. Open question to any of these rape-defending turds: How far would you have let Polanski go before deciding that, hey, he probably should serve some time after all? What if he punched the kid in the face when he was raping her? Beat her with a tire iron? Seriously, how far?

It didn't take long this morning to find something that rattled my cage. My Google Reader is nearing 1000 again and I'm hard at work sorting through the deluge to find the most important (IMHO) items for my readers.

American Spectator published a fine article, Women to the Rescue, concerning Michelle Obama's attempt to make health care a "woman's issue." I listened to the speech Michelle gave on September 18. This quote of hers sums up the objective of the speech:

As you can perhaps imagine, there is much reading in the Darwin family, as we consider it necessary to corrupt the dear little tabula rasas of our children with a mixture of facts and fairy stories from the very youngest possible age. And how better may one corrupt the youth then by wrapping up the harsh teachings of the dismal science in the charming trappings of a bevy of dear little fuzzy animals? Do not allow these subtle deceptions, gentle reader! As I shall demonstrate, under the cover of a whimsical, Edwardian children's authoress, lurks a deadly capitalist in sheep's clothing.

It's always dangerous for a blog run by men to link to posts about women working but I can always blame Patrick for putting this up if we get into trouble:

Catherine Hakim, a senior research fellow at the London School of Economics, has been studying gender and work trends for decades. “The most misleading feminist myth is that women are united in their goals and priorities,” she wrote in the journal Public Policy Review. “The myth that all or most women would be just as careerist as men, if only they were given the opportunity, has been exploded.”

In other words, it's pointless to try to get women to make up 50% of the paid workforce of every profession. Women will never make up 50% of CEO's.

You know, it would be one thing if all these teachers were forcing kids to sing good songs about Obama but these songs are hardly songs. They just have the kids chanting or something. If you're going to indoctrinate children at least please do it with some style. Just so we don't feel insulted please. Atlas Shrugs has the video of even more elementary school children singing/chanting phrases like "Change is here" and other ridiculous things:

When was the last time a child came home singing a song about the Bill of Rights, the order of the Presidents, the Declaration of Independence? Spin a globe, ask them to find Malaysia, Iran, Indonesia, Australia, Israel (too tiny to find on a globe). Kids haven't a clue. But this garbage is taught.

Another clip surfaces that pays fuhrer type tribute to the mirror man. This from at Sand Hill Elementary School in Asheville, NC.

I thought the right to privacy was the one thing liberals cared most about. I guess that's only when it comes to abortion though. Law professor William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection has a great take on how Obamacare may be a threat to liberty in ways we haven't even discussed yet:

My Congressman, Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), knows a lot about the importance of the privacy of medical records, having spent most of his adult life in and out of drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Yet Patrick is a hard line Democrat when it comes to government control of health care.

And therein lies the rub. It is inconsistent to assert that highly confidential medical records should remain private, yet turn those very same records over to a centralized electronic repository, as required under electronic records provisions in the February 2009 stimulus bill. There is a long history of confidential government records falling into the wrong hands, such as when various government employees snooped on the confidential passport records of Barack Obama, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton, and hundreds of celebrities. Breaches of government databases from hackers also are routine.

I LIKE NUNS! I APPRECIATE NUNS! I just sometimes loose patience with the select few who belong to the “We’re gonna change the Church” crowd. After all, as a convert, I came to the Church because of its power to CHANGE ME, not the other way around. Grrrr.

In 1957 comedian Red Skelton was on top of the world. His weekly comedy show on CBS was doing well. He had curtailed the drinking which had almost derailed his career. Not too shabby for a man who had started out as a circus and rodeo clown and who was now often called the clown prince of American comedy. He and his wife Georgia had two beautiful kids: Richard and Valentina Maria. Then the worst thing in the world for any parent entered into the lives of Red and Georgia Skelton: Richard was diagnosed with leukemia. Unlike today, a diagnosis of leukemia in a child in 1957 was tantamount to saying that Richard was going to die soon. Red immediately took a leave of absence from his show. CBS was very understanding and a series of guest hosts, including a very young Johnny Carson, filled in for Skelton during the 1957-1958 season.

St. Mary's County Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron unlocked the pine and oak doors of the rebuilt Brick Chapel last weekend in Historic St. Mary's City, reversing the actions of the county's first sheriff, who locked the original doors under orders of the royal governor in 1704.

After living side by side with Catholics for years under the rule of the Calvert family, Protestants in the colony of Maryland led a revolution against the third Lord Baltimore, Charles Calvert, in 1689.

England appointed royal governors who moved the colony's capital to Annapolis in 1695, and under "An Act to Prevent the Growth of Popery within this Province," the Brick Chapel and other Catholic schools and churches were locked nine years later.

Obama Calls This Troop Request Thing Very Very Silly. Ed Morrisey has the confusing and sordid tale:

After everyone else had heard what General Stanley McChrystal needs for his mission to succeed in Afghanistan, the Obama administration took official custody today of the report that requests a significant troop increase for the Af-Pak theater. However, Barack Obama will not officially get to see it for a while. The Pentagon says they will hold his request, officially, until Obama officially makes an official decision about the officially official policy he wants to officially pursue in the war:

R.S. McCain is saying that some forms of birth control might have consequences!!!!!!!!!!!! How dare he!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pregnancy prevention has other effects other than preventing pregnancy? Who'd a thunk it?

I can almost hear the cries of protestations now from libs saying McCain has six kids so what the heck does he know about pregnancy prevention anyway, right? (As always with McCain, his language can get a little salty so you're officially warned) But along with the salty language also comes a very sharp mind and strong writing that pulls no punches.

Ah, you can't fool Mother Nature!

The oral contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin are the top-selling pharmaceutical line for Bayer HealthCare, largely as a result of marketing that presents them as much more than mere pregnancy prevention.Yaz, in particular, the top-selling birth control pill in the United States, owes much of its popularity to multimillion-dollar ad campaigns that have promoted the drug as a quality-of-life treatment to combat acne and severe premenstrual depression. . . .

Please hold on while I see if there's someone more important on the other line:

You would think that with all the methods of communication at our disposal, the task of communicating would be easier. I think it's gotten harder.

I can remember in the 1960s, when our phone was on a party line. If it was for us, we got a ring. But the person who had our line could get on and complain that we were tying up the phone. I remember this happening as late as 1970. "You kids shouldn't be on for more than fifteen minutes, you hear me?" Yes, ma'am.

Michael Miller writing in the Philadelphia Bulletin talks about how pro-life activism is changing and thriving:

The number one cause of death in the United States is abortion. Planned Parenthood expects and receives one third of its billion-dollar annual budget from taxpayer funding. Radically pro-abortion politicians now control the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. “However, we have every reason to be optimistic about the profound pro-life shift that is beginning to take place below the radar.”

So said David Bereit, national campaign director of 40 Days for Life, last Fall only a few weeks after the national elections in a teleconference during which he announced their fourth nationwide campaign, which started on Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009.

Hey. Wanna' read something really scary? Head on over to Pundit and Pundette and read how Obama "pursues compliance."

The government gag-order of Humana speaks volumes about where we are headed under (yes, under) the Obama administration.

The move makes it plain that the Baucus bill can't stand the light of day. The Senate Finance Committee doesn't want Medicare Advantage members to know how the bill would adversely affect their benefits. This attempt at secrecy is consistent with other behavior on the part of the majority of the Senate Finance Committee to keep the provisions of the bill hidden from scrutiny.

Even more troubling is that an American government body would use this tactic.

The Blog Prof acknowledges that Democrat Bart Stupak has said many things publicly about his worries about abortion being covered in Obamacare. It's what he's saying elsewhere that's got The Blog Prof worried. Click on it because it's really well researched and highlights a problem we're facing in putting out trust in "conservative Democrats."

I've said many times in this blog that there is no such thing as a conservative Democrat, just Democrats representing conservative districts. To do so, they have to pretend to defend certain issues important to a center-right majority in their districts. Being pro-life is one of those important issues. Case-in-point today is Michigan 1st District U.S. Representative Bart Stupak - Democrat. District 1 is about as far away from me as any district in Michigan. Stupak on the surface has some genuine pro-life credentials based on his voting record...

So we've got children in schools being forced to sing praise to Obama and now the children are being quizzed on Obama. Madness I say. Madness.

Even with all of the hoopla over the lesson plan suggestions, some schools still found ways to push support for the President. A few days after President Obama’s speech, one of the members of Smart Girl Politics contacted me and was upset about something that had transpired in her daughter’s school. Her daughter, a senior in high school, had come home upset because, although the speech was not shown in her school, her anatomy teacher had made the class watch the President’s health care speech. After the video was shown, the students were given a short quiz about the speech. The questions asked gave the assumption that the answers provided in the President’s speech were fact and not opinion. The students were given no opportunity to discuss opposing views or have a debate on the topic. In fact, when one student stated that the President had lied, the student was told that kind of talk was unnecessary. Students in the class with opposing views were forced to remain silent or whisper amongst themselves.

I enjoyed reading the comments to the post below this one about Sunday dress. If anything, the one thing that surprises me the most is that people over the age of five actually wear shorts to Mass. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that shorts at Mass, as well as other inappropriate clothing choices, reflects something about our culture, not just about Mass-goers and the clothing choices they make.

I live in a place where triple-digit temperatures are expected during the summer. It gets hot here, no doubt about it. But I own exactly two pairs of shorts, and I wear them around the house on the hottest days. I never wear them out in public at all.

This is disturbing. While local governments all over America are outlawing manger scenes and Christmas trees, this is OK?

It appeared to be a typical Al-Quds Day rally, replete with hateful speeches about the destruction of the State of Israel and the waving of Hizballah flags. The rally resembled other international versions of this year's Al-Quds Day celebration, an annual Islamist holiday initiated by Iranian revolutionary and terrorism exporter, Imam Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini. However, this event wasn't held in downtown Karachi or Damascus, but in downtown Washington, D.C's Sheridan Circle.

The rally was organized by an employee of the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning, Faheem Darab.

Today is Stem Cell Awareness Day? Wow. I almost missed it. Thanks goodness for Mary Meets Dolly blog or else everyone would've been making fun of me for missing this very important day.

Today is Stem Cell Awareness Day as proclaimed by Governors Arnold Scwartzenegger of California and Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. As promised I will do my part to make the public aware of all of the recentadvances that have been made in adult stem cell research.

First up: A girl in India is cured of thalassemia using the cord blood stem cells from her younger sibling. Thalassemia is a genetic disorder that requires regular blood transfusions

Kudos to the ladies of Growing Up Lane and Visualize Love for their incredible idea, “Project Chaste”. Sick of the lies today’s media moguls heap on teens and young adults, they have come together to send a message that many young people today are choosing chastity and have the strength to withstand attacks and misinformation. Please check out the video below and help me spread the word about Project Chaste. Way to go, girls!!

To be honest, I've been staying out of the whole controversy about the 88 pro-life protestors being arrested. Many have called for Fr. Jenkins to drop the trespassing charges. Now, my initial thought was that yes they did trespass and they knew what they were getting into but I was wrong.

The Curt Jester raises some excellent points on this which make me join in the chorus of those calling for Fr. Jenkins to drop the charges.

What gets me about the arrest of the pro-lifers is a couple of things. One Fr. Jenkins decided he could give his own interpretation on what the Bishops said regarding honoring pro-abortion politicians. He has not followed the provisions in Church documents such as Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Yet when it comes to a Notre Dame law in regards to protests - that is hard and fast dogma with no mercy or change possible. Dialog is so much talked about, but making allowances for pro-lifers to peacefully protest is another story. The way that these protesters were treated is sad beyond belief. Handcuffing a elderly priest for the crime of protesting what 80 some bishops said should never have allowed is a sad indictment.

The Italian newspaper Il Giornale, owned by the family of Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, carries a headline today dominated by the words “Ha mentito” - “he lied”, referring to Pope Benedict XVI. The paper is busy stirring up trouble over the claims by Swedish TV, due to be aired tonight, that the Vatican knew in advance about the Holocaust-denying background of Bishop Richard Williamson before his excommunication was lifted.

So WaPo writes that James O'Keefe, the "pimp" in the Acorn videos, says something pretty blatantly racist on a front page story and then puts out a tiny correction that he never actually said it. Wow! Powerline has been been all over this story and continues to do a great job:

Our old friend Joel Mowbray (jdmowbra@erols.com) has been doing his own legwork on the story of the drive-by mugging of James O'Keefe by the Washington Post's Darryl Fears. Joel writes:

As Scott Johnson has already noted here and here, the Washington Post attributed a doozy of a statement to ACORN arch-nemesis James O'Keefe, claiming that "he said he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives that turn out poor African Americans and Latinos against Republicans."

Upon seeing that, my journalist's antennae shot straight up, thinking that one way or the other, there was a story. Either O'Keefe had troubling racial motivations or the Post put words into his mouth that would do genuine harm to his reputation.

I must say I completely agree with R.S. McCain on this one. Are conservatives seriously going to go to the mattresses in their attack on Glenn Beck for his badmouthing John McCain? Really? Seriously? I don't listen to Glenn Beck (mainly because my son fed Chuck E. Cheese tokens into the CD player while I was buckling the baby. And I don't watch him on television because we're usually doing homework with the girls around then. But Beck's on our side here guys. He's home team. R.S. McCain writes.:

Unlike a certain deranged blogger who sees enemies everywhere, I am not interested in running a personality cult where everyone who disagrees with me is a "fascist." The fact that Think Progress wants to see a Levin vs. Beck smackdown should be all the proof any conservative needs that such a fight is a bad idea.

Democrat-sponsored health-care legislation currently before Congress could require violations of Catholic teaching in such areas as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, assisted suicide — even infanticide. Leonard J. Nelson III, a professor at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, has been studying these issues for years and discusses them in his new book, Diagnosis Critical: The Urgent Threats Confronting Catholic Health Care (OSV 2009). Recently he fielded questions from National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.

The ongoing scandals involving ACORN have made national news. Most Catholics know that until recently, the community-organizing group had been receiving annual funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. According to a Catholic News Service article of October 16, 2008, ACORN had received $7.3 million from the Catholic Campaign over the previous ten years, making it one of group’s largest supporters.

The last we heard from Steven Chu, Barack Obama’s Secretary of Energy, someone had to explain to him that oil policy fell within his “domain.” Now that Chu has apparently mastered what exactly energy means, he now wants to act as a parent to recalcitrant Americans who stubbornly insist on making their own choices in life. The Wall Street Journal reports on Chu’s attitude towards the role of government, and especially his condescending attitude towards the governed:

Watching this new video from Steven Crowder I started laughing. And then I started getting very very afraid:

I’ve got to admit that I set out to create this video expecting the finished product to be nothing more than tomfoolery as per usual. When I sat down to review the final version however, I realized just how sad/scary this is. These people are our future. They’ll be building our airplanes, teaching in our schools and possibly… running our country. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t trust 90% of these kids with a pair of scissors. All of this begs the question: how did they get into Berkeley? More importantly, what the heck are they teaching over there?

Via Pewsitter. Surprise. Surprise. The Vatican and the USCCB don't see eye to eye. They differ in understanding proselytism? As Catholic Culture points out, the USCCB says no proselytizing to other Christian groups but fails to emphasize the obligation of Catholics to proclaim the Catholic faith to non-Catholic Christians. This seems strange to me:

A recent press release by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops appears to put forward a different understanding of proselytism from that taught by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith-- and in doing so, may inadvertently lead some Catholics to neglect their responsibility to proclaim and witness to the Catholic faith in its fullness to non-Catholic Christians.

An official of the US bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs writes:

Proselytism, or the deliberate targeting of another Christian or group of Christians for the sole purpose of getting them to reject their church to join another, is not allowed. Some people may feel called in conscience to change from one tradition to another, but “sheep stealing” is unacceptable.

Wow. This is a hard hitting letter from Professor Rice with some added comments from Jay Anderson. Long but worth reading:

Dear Father Jenkins:First, permit me to express my appreciation for the expressions of support for the pro-life cause in your September 16th “Letter concerning post-commencement initiatives.” I know, however, that in a matter as significant as this, you will appreciate and welcome a respectful but very candid expression of views. In my opinion, the positions you have taken are deficient in some respects.

Wow. I'm linking this one up just because I've never seen anything like this argument before. And I can't believe I haven't seen it before. The argument goes that if Jesus had more time he would have...(insert favorite issue here like abortion, gay marriage, etc...)

I love it. It's so mind bogglingly stupid that it'll simply stun many opponents into silence. And after all, silence is what they really want anyway. Cranky Con found it in the Cincinatti Enquirer:

Rich Leonardi links to a letter in the Cincinnati Enquirer where a letter writer makes this brilliant argument for women’s ordination.

“Jesus chose the apostles, he chose men not women.” As a believer in Jesus Christ, I choose to believe that had he more time, Jesus would have eventually seen the light and taken full advantage of the brillance, endurance and patience of women, thus entrusting them as apostles (”Women of faith: no stifling debate“). I have faith he would ensure equality.

James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles are the young activists who have blown the lid off the criminal left-wing enterprise known as ACORN. If they were left-wingers exposing some conservative or religious organization, government-funded or not, the mainstream media would have hailed them as heroic whistleblowers, perhaps worthy of a Time cover. Instead, the media are doing their damndest to slime them.

"The video [shows] one of many liturgical abuses during Sunday Mass, which also included a plug before Mass for Father's favorite dog shampoo (As he set the bottle of shampoo on the altar while continuing to talk about it and then made some in the congregation smell it)."

I've seen this question a few places. I'm way too dumb to answer it so I send you over to the smart people at Hermeneutic of Continuity who have the answer:

Thanks to Fr John Boyle for notice of an attempt to hijack the visit of the relics of St Thérèse in the cause of the ordination of women. (See: St Therese and the Priesthood). There is a good article published in Homiletic and Pastoral Review a few years back which covered the quotation usually brought out in favour of the St Thérèse as womynpriest thesis: Did St. Thérèse want to be a priest?

This is the most out of left field hit on the Church I've seen in a while. Tim Graham has a transcript of the lunacy:

The ACORN exposes have been distributed widely enough in liberal media circles to be spread as fodder on Thursday's edition of The View. The liberal women were very upset that the poor people would suffer now that ACORN is losing its federal funding right and left, implying that the end of subsidies means the end of ACORN. This spurred Joy Behar to pull out the largest bogeyman in her purse, comparing ACORN to the Catholic Church. Here's how it unfolded:

A young woman has completed a Chicago half-marathon in a fundraising campaign to help eliminate her personal debt so she can enter religious life.

Alicia Torres, a 2007 graduate of Loyola University Chicago, began “The Nun Run” campaign with the support of friends. She and five companions ran the 13.1-mile Chicago Half Marathon on September 13 to raise funds to help pay down her debt.

One of the first things that popped out at me when I moved to Kansas City from San Francisco was the presence of Down Syndrome kids. You don’t see hardly any in San Francisco. Here in the heartland they are welcomed and loved in schools and communities and most importantly, born.

Here’s the story behind the video below which ran on the local news tonight, as explained by Matt Ziesel’s family:

This is priceless. Obama doesn't like the meaning of a word in the dictionary so he says that's not what it means. Yup. Obama says he knows better than the dictionary:

So I wonder. When my kids ask me what a word means I always said, "Go look it up in the dictionary." But should I tell my kids to go ask Obama because clearly the dictionary is no longer a reliable source of definitions. Patterico has the story:

During his Magical Mystery Tour of the Sunday chat shows, Pres. Obama took ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on a trip Through the Looking Glass on the question of whether the health insurance mandate is a tax:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?

***

OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase…

***

STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax — “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”

Now, I have a reason to yell at all my neighbors about liking the Eagles. Not that I need another reason to but this'll do for today:

Well. Yet another reason to hate the Eagles, and, if you have that bent (and I know most of you do) the Patriots.

On the other hand, the Cowboys win some goodwill... but not bloody enough.

I'll take your bet, Dave. Even if the Giants are a bunch of commies. Whoops: Got the columns backwards. The Giants are 72% non-commie. Considering where they play (the most corrupt Democratically-controlled state outside Rhode Island) they're positively arch-conservative to only toss the Dems 28% of donations.

Wolf Blitzer may be the dumbest man on the planet. Evidence? He didn't just get beat by Andy Richter and Dana Delaney on Celebrity Jeapordy. He got destroyed. And not a little destroyed. We're talking destruction like nuclear bomb followed by poison gas, followed by machete weilding gorillas on steroids kind of destroyed. Check out the vid at Big Hollywood:

My guess is that all the questions were about ACORN, Van Jones and the National Endowment for the Arts scandals, which CNN obviously knows nothing about.

I know it's shocking but those who make a living (and quite a nice one) destroying babies, want to keep the number of abortions high. No matter who it hurts:

A study has found that women who have an abortion may run an increased risk of subsequently giving birth to premature or low-weight babies. Researchers from Toronto, Canada, reviewed evidence from 37 studies from around the world between 1965 and 2001.

It seems, however, that the more evidence which emerges about the harm abortion causes, the more the supporters of abortion insist that abortion not be restricted

Wow! You'd think the White House would clue in to this and just not keep pushing for abortion coverage in Obamacare. But they can't pay attention to the people because pro-choice lobbyists fill their coffers with money.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% believe any government-subsidized health care plan should be prohibited from covering abortion procedures. 13% believe such plans should be required to cover abortions, and 32% favor a more neutral approach with no requirements in either direction....

The Washington Times reports that Barack Obama has finally concluded that Joe Wilson was right, and that ObamaCare presents a big problem in handling illegal immigrants. Fortunately, the White House has found a solution to the problem. No, they’re not going to beef up enforcement or require identification before receiving subsidies and services. They’re just going to offer amnesty so that no one’s illegal anymore:

You can read all about it at Big Government because they did it. But this story is amazing on so many levels. It's about the extinction of the old media. It's about how anyone can make a difference -even if they're dressed ridiculously. You can check out stories on the vote and see the videos over at Big Government.Continue reading>>>

Notre Dame's Fr. Jenkins will join the March for Life. You should all be impressed that I'm delivering this bit of news snark free.

In apparent attempt to regain favor with pr-life Catholics upset that Notre Dame invited pro-abortion President Barack Obama to give its commencement address and gave him an honorary degree, university president John Jenkins says he will attend the 2010 March for Life.

Jenkins is also setting up a task force to promote the pro-life perspective on campus.

This is bad. In another article I read on this, I saw that a Czech politician said, "If the administration approaches us in the future with any request, I would be strongly against it." Here's K-Lo on the abandonment of Poland and the Czech Republic.

This gives one chills: Our president is evidently poised to kill missile defense.

The Obama administration appears likely to adopt a compromise European missile defense plan that shelves many of the components that have been a major irritant in relations with Russia, with an announcement expected Thursday.

I'll file this story under sad but true. Jay Anderson reminds us that he is one of the best Catholic bloggers out there.

Look, I don't blame the left for playing the "race card". While it is detestable and immoral to calumniate one's opponents in such a fashion, I also recognize that it is the best card they have and that they're going to play it. It's worked as a trump so many times before that the left would be absolutely foolish, politically, not to continue playing it.

But I expect a little more from Catholics on the left. Perhaps naively on my part, I hope for Catholics of whatever political stripe to put the tenets of their Faith ahead of the platform of their party. Surely Catholics who take their Faith seriously wouldn't stoop to calumniating those with whom they disagree politically as "racists", would they?

G.K. Chesterton, the famed British journalist, author, apologist, and wit recently sat down (in the form of his books, as he was not physically available) with Ignatius Insight editor Carl E. Olson and discussed the best-selling novelist Dan Brown—whose new novel, The Lost Symbol, is released September 15—and the importance and place of good and bad fiction.

Ignatius Insight: I was somewhat surprised to learn that you haven't been entirely negative about Dan Brown's novels, including The Da Vinci Code.

Chesterton: My taste is for the sensational novel, the detective story, the story about death, robbery and secret societies; a taste which I share in common with the bulk at least of the male population of this world.

Patterico asks a question that merits asking. Does the media even matter anymore?

Last week, ObamaCare dominated the American mediascape:

For the week of September 7-13, the battle over health care reform accounted for 32% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That equals the previous high-water mark in PEJ’s News Coverage Index, which monitors the agenda of the mainstream media. That occurred during the week of August 10-16, when angry town hall confrontations were driving the press narrative.

What?! You mean doctors don't want to be serfs to the state? Even for Obama?

Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.

The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors’ own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul.

I found this at Pewsitter. A bunch of liberal Catholic groups are getting together to hold a vigil to convince Cardinal Rigali to endorse ObamaCare. I guess Rigali should stop worrying so much about taxpayer money going to kill babies and just hop on the Obama bandwagon.

Area Catholics and other people of faithwill vigil for health care for all on Saturday, September 19,at SS Peter & Paul Cathedral in Philadelphia. People willcall on Cardinal Rigali to withdraw his opposition to real health care reform.Vigilers will gather at 1 p.m. across from the Philadelphia Free Library for a procession to the Cathedral.

TheU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishopshas a 30-yearhistory of lobbying for universal health care, which the bishops have called "a fundamental issue of human dignity and life."However, Cardinal Rigali, along with a few other U.S. bishops,is joining with Right-wing Republican fringe groups determined to stoplegislation that would bring health insurance to millions and millionsof uninsured Americans.

Shannon watches them take down the swingset and tries not to get crazy over it.

Last week we took down our swingset.

It feels like I should play a little funeral dirge behind that sentence. No swingset, after 12 years of living in a home with a swingset. Ours is gone.

I watched the disassembling from my perch on the back patio (where I sat wearing a JACKET in late August, by the way--if this is climate change, it's working for me just fine). I watched the boys handing tools to Hubs, while Corrie sang them show tunes (it was immensely helpful to them), and I coached myself: do not get sentimental, do not get sentimental. It's just a rusty old death trap that needed to come down before someone got launched over the neighbor's fence. Anyway, it would be nice for some grass to grow over there. This is purely practical--it is not some climactic harbinger of my sad, empty nest.

Michael Sean Winter's logic is so ridiculous here that I've actually started to look forward to reading his stuff because it makes me laugh. I was going to tear it apart myself but I'm tired so I'll let American Catholic do it. And he does a great job of it too. Oh and read the comments too. They're great as well.:

Pro-life liberal Catholic writer Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter argues that because Catholic conservatives find themselves opposed not only to a universal health care bill that funds abortion, but also to the idea of centralized health care in general, they are in fact playing into the hands of the pro-abortion lobby.

I'm way too stupid to understand all the reasons why Catholic-Orthodox unity hasn't been achieved but I can sure hope and pray for a change.

Could Catholic-Orthodox unity come about sooner than most people think? The Catholic Archbishop of Moscow is sanguine:

The Catholic Archbishop of Moscow has given a remarkably upbeat assessment of relations with the Orthodox Church, saying unity between Catholics and Orthodox could be achieved “within a few months.”

In an interview today in Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, Archbishop Paolo Pezzi said the miracle of reunification “is possible, indeed it has never been so close.” The archbishop added that Catholic-Orthodox reunification, the end of the historic schism that has divided them for a millennium, and spiritual communion between the two churches “could happen soon, within a few months.”

I remember when I first saw the movie "High Fidelity" I had high hopes that Jack Black was going to be a great comedic actor for years to come. I was wrong. He's now hawking video games on MTV while mockingly praying to the devil.

Look, I'm sure he'd say it was just a joke but if you needed reason 1 million and 1 not to allow your kids to watch MTV, this is a pretty good one.

The MTV Awards once again earned its reputation for tawdry entertainment by broadcasting Jack Black praying to the devil. The comedian, who was hawking a heavy metal video game called Brütal Legend, asked the "Dear Dark Lord Satan" to bless the rock star nominees with "continued success in the music industry."

Michael Sean Winters the Catholic writer who never even heard of Patrick Madrid continues to embarrass himself and the Jesuit magazine he writes for.

Using quite faulty logic he decides that the protests against the Obama Administration are racist "It is becoming well nigh impossible to deny the racist overtones of these protests." The crowd which was of historic proportions is his main evidence since President Carter and Clinton did not draw similar crowds. It is rather bad reasoning to say that the only difference is that we now have a black president and nothing more.

The left is seeking to silence the right -just as they always do. Secondhand Smoke is on it:

A meme is taking hold on the left that opponents of President Obama can’t accept a black president. But that’s baloney that has turned moldy. President Obama is being treated just like every other president has been by his (or someday, her) political opponents–very roughly. Ask George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, good grief, ask George W. Bush!

This is something I think about often. S. Logan as you might remember essentially recently hit the brakes on her career path to go help with an urban kids ministry so she knows of what she speaks.

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

This is one of my mom's favorite quotes. She reminds me of it often, and today I found it to be true.

A man approached me while I was working at my new favorite haunt--a coffee shop filled with the liberal, hipster types. I never turn down a connection, so it wasn't long before we were discussing the plight of Atlanta's underprivileged. Naturally, the conversation took a political turn towards the different approaches of conservatives and liberals to help said group.

This ain't no ya-ya thing. It's like Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club. Suzanne has six boys and she's discovered what she calls a secret club that guys have. If she discovers our secret meeting places, we'll all have to move. I'll keep you informed:

Since I've had boys, I've had the opportunity to witness a certain male camaraderie that I had hitherto been completely unaware existed. When I go out in public with my all-male crew, men cheer me. I've never had a man ask me if I was done trying for my girl. They wink at my boys in the deli line and congratulate me, they talk sports and recommend movies to my boys when we visit the hardware store, they count them up with admiration and honor me with their "SIX!" like it's a trophy of some sort. They smile and nod with approval when we pass, they offer all manner of hand shakes to my boys and my boys respond in kind. There's a certain clubbiness about it, a certain male team spirit my boys understand.

I do not have this problem as my wife and I don't share taste in movies, books, or much at all to be honest. But this is a great post from Bettnet concerning deep dark marital troubles from a wife who shamelessly and ruthlessly steals her husband's books. It sounds like an intervention is needed:

Dear Abby:

I love my wife. I really do. And one of the reasons I married her was that, in addition to being gorgeous and Catholic and open to life, she loves books. Even more than I do. And that’s a lot.

Not only does she love books, but we love the same kind of books in many cases. She likes science fiction and fantasy! Am I lucky or what?

Unfortunately, Abby, that’s where there’s a little trouble in paradise. You see, my wife, “M”, loves books so much that she devours them whole. She goes through 400-page novels in a sitting and she’s often reading three or four books at a time. Not all at once, mind you, like a female, latter-day St. Thomas Aquinas, but they’ll be scattered about the house or in the diaper bag, ready for the picking when the mood strikes. Again, this isn’t so bad in itself: She gets many books at the library or through Bookmooch, so the cost isn’t really an issue.

No, the problem is that … she reads my books while I’m still reading them!

Mad props to Adrienne for pointing out this article at American Thinker. It says exactly what I would've said if I was a lot smarter and if I watched "Blossom" when it was on:

Barack Obama has jumped the shark.

This past week was when the forty-fourth president of the United States tugged on his leather jacket, strapped on his water skis, roared off behind a motorboat and fearlessly jumped over a live shark

The term "jump the shark" comes from a late seventies Happy Days episode when the series, desperately trying to stop its ratings slide, had the character Fonzie, in his trademark leather jacket, water ski over a shark during a visit to Hollywood. Since then, a show or movie series that tries increasingly more desperate moves as its audience disappears is said to have "jumped the shark."

Great questions from Troglopundit on the healthcare for illegals question:

“Some people are now asking why DON’T we offer to give illegal immigrants free healthcare?”That’s Wisconsin blogger and main character in the award-winning* novel “The Abortionist” Elliot Stearns, who adds:

Someone's got to be kidding me. This would make the NYC flyover look harmless:

Coast Guard Conducts Exercise On Potomac This Morning. Reports came across from a number of sources that the Coast Guard fired at a small boat on the Potomac near a bridge where the President's motorcade was crossing on the way to a nearby 9/11 remembrance.

Turns out, it was a training exercise and the Coast Guard said no shots were fired.

Does the White House think that nobody was going to check on this? Pundette has more:

One of the anecdotes used by President Obama last night to demonize the insurance industry was the story of Mr. Otto Raddatz. What Obama said:

One man from Illinois lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because his insurer found that he hadn't reported gallstones that he didn't even know about. They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it.

Troubles within the Lutheran College with the Bible being used on both sides has some wondering if there's not some teaching authority somewhere. Against the Grain has the story:

I attended a Lutheran (ELCA) college, where I majored in theology and philosophy. Much of my junior and senior year, however, were spent engaged in study of Catholic teaching (thanks to the fortunate discovery of Dorothy Day and Cardinal Ratzinger), culminating in my conversion.

In much the same manner as my familial background leads me, even as a convert, to take an interest in Mennonite affairs, I try to stay abreast of Lutheran matters and Lutheran-Catholic relations.

NYT columnist Tom Friedman was on Meet the Press criticizing blogs for digging up Van Jones' own comments. Well, the Heritage Foundation wondered what kind of guy is Tom Friedman. It turns out he's kind of wacky in that he clearly thinks America's kind of backward and China's really enlightened:

When news broke that self-proclaimed communist and former Obama adminstration Green Jobs Czar Van Jones signed a 9/11 truther petition in 2004, we wrote:

Green Jobs Czar is the perfect job for a 9/11 truther. Just as Popular Mechanics has debunked all of the crazy 9/11 truther claims, research both here in the U.S., and abroad, has repeatedly demonstrated that subsidizing high cost renewable energies destroys more jobs than it creates.

Then, this weekend on Meet the Press, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman defended Jones, calling the internet “an open sewer of untreated, unfiltered information.” Turns out Friedman is no stranger to Jones’ views. Friedman wrote a puff piece on Jones’ Green-Collar Solution in October of 2007. Today, Friedman again cements the bonds between socialism and the enviro-leftist movement, writing in his column:

In 1969, Governor Ronald Reagan of California made what he later admitted was one of the biggest mistakes of his political life. Seeking to eliminate the strife and deception often associated with the legal regime of fault-based divorce, Reagan signed the nation's first no-fault divorce bill. The new law eliminated the need for couples to fabricate spousal wrongdoing in pursuit of a divorce; indeed, one likely reason for Reagan's decision to sign the bill was that his first wife, Jane Wyman, had unfairly accused him of "mental cruelty" to obtain a divorce in 1948. But no-fault divorce also gutted marriage of its legal power to bind husband and wife, allowing one spouse to dissolve a marriage for any reason — or for no reason at all.

In the decade and a half that followed, virtually every state in the Union followed California's lead and enacted a no-fault divorce law of its own. This legal transformation was only one of the more visible signs of the divorce revolution then sweeping the United States: From 1960 to 1980, the divorce rate more than doubled — from 9.2 divorces per 1,000 married women to 22.6 divorces per 1,000 married women. This meant that while less than 20% of couples who married in 1950 ended up divorced, about 50% of couples who married in 1970 did. And approximately half of the children born to married parents in the 1970s saw their parents part, compared to only about 11% of those born in the 1950s.

From G. K. Chesterton's The Victorian Age of Literature, first published in 1913:

This is no place for estimating his theology: but one point about it does clearly emerge. Whatever else is right, the theory that Newman went over to Rome to find peace and an end of argument, is quite unquestionably wrong. He had far more quarrels after he had gone over to Rome. But, though he had far more quarrels, he had far fewer compromises: and he was of that temper which is tortured more by compromise than by quarrel. He was a man at once of abnormal energy and abnormal sensibility: nobody without that combination could have written the Apologia. If he sometimes seemed to skin his enemies alive, it was because he himself lacked a skin.

Obama's Science Czar must be speaking in some high falutin sciency terms because to me it seems like he's saying American needs to become poor ASAP. Ace has broken out the flaming skull for this one:

Hey, the US Really Needs to Redistribute Its Wealth to Poorer Countries 'n Stuff. I suppose the Planetary Regime he previously suggested can force us to, if necessary.

Asked if a reduction in the US standard of living was a politically viable demand, Holdren responds:

"I think, ultimately, the rate of growth of material consumption is going to have to come down, and there's going to have to be a degree of redistribution of how much we consume in terms of energy and material resources in order to leave room for people who are poor to become more prosperous."

The federal government has effectively unfettered control over one school district in all of America : District of Columbia Public Schools. It is one of the worst in America, combining the normal graft and chicanery of Democrat inner city political machines with the spectacularly incoherent guiding hands of 536 little czars. I’m sure you’re just as shocked as I am that the DCPS spends the most per student in the nation, and tests lowest in the nation.

Wow. That's all I can say to this. Fr. Richard McBrien is against Eucharistic Adoration. Wow.

From Fr. Richard McBrien:

Notwithstanding Pope Benedict XVI’s personal endorsement of eucharistic adoration and the sporadic restoration of the practice in the archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere, it is difficult to speak favorably about the devotion today.

Now that most Catholics are literate and even well-educated, the Mass is in the language of the people (i.e, the vernacular), and its rituals are relatively easy to understand and follow, there is little or no need for extraneous eucharistic devotions. The Mass itself provides all that a Catholic needs sacramentally and spiritually.

Eucharistic adoration, perpetual or not, is a doctrinal, theological, and spiritual step backward, not forward.

I personally would never touch a woman's pregnant belly but I see it happen all the time. People are always trying to touch my wife's belly when she's pregnant (which is often) and at first it freaked me out and now it still freaks me out but I understand it (a little):

The first time a stranger touched my newly pregnant belly, I wanted to politely take her fingers and peel them off one by one.

I was only eight weeks pregnant and, while my husband and I were thrilled about this unexpected gift of life, my pregnancy still felt very private. I certainly was not showing yet, and it felt strange to have my abdomen touched because my abdomen was not normally touched by strangers and what she was actually touching was my intestinal tract, while my tiny baby nestled safely amidst my pelvic frame.

True love consists in presenting the saving truths that the Lord has entrusted to His Church with clarity and precision, without any concessions to the spirit of the world. This duty is not only incumbent to the Hierarchy, but to all Catholics and in particular to the persons who have a position of social and political leadership; they have to manifest these teachings and, more importantly, their lives have to be lead in coherence with those teachings.

There is no doubt that example and coherence of life are much more eloquent than a thousand words. This applies especially to the example of those who have a position of public authority. Such as these cannot be selective in the way that they adhere to the teachings of the Church: all teachings are important and they have an inner coherence that is necessary to respect.

This is just hilarious in the not actually funny way but in the look how insane those people over at Newsweek are kind of way. Remember how all those years we were told that racism is learned and that we had to be careful not to teach our children how to hate. Well that's off. White babies are born racist, says Newsweek. So I guess we can teach our children to hate because they know all about it anyway. Stop the ACLU has the details on the madness:

If you’re Caucasian, don’t think you’re ever clean of the moonbat answer to original sin. According to Newsreek, even babies are racist.

At the Children’s Research Lab at the University of Texas — located in liberal Austin, the Berkeley of the Southwest — Birgitte Vittrup attempted to measure how effective propaganda is at instilling multiculturalist ideology in small children. She found that despite parents’ progressive intentions and the homogenous political correctness of everything they see on TV, children 5 to 7 years old tended to consider blacks but not whites to be “mean.” That this could have something to do with playground experiences was not even considered.

In 2006, two long-serving Benedictine Sisters from Wisconsin renounced their vows and left their order. The Vatican concurred in releasing them.

Nothing surprising there - Religious leave their orders all the time. What is unique about this case is that the two women figured out how to take all of their former order’s assets with them. In October, a group of leaders from men’s and women’s religious orders will learn how to do the same.

“It's a sad day to see a man of good work get so little credit,” CNN senior political analyst David Gergen regretted about Van Jones on Monday's Anderson Cooper 360, complaining about the coverage of the Obama “green jobs” czar who resigned late Saturday night after his radical views were exposed: “I mean, there's no balance to understanding just how many good things he's done.”

‘Less-than-voluntary euthanasia’ is studied from different angles in this New York Times op-ed. It straddles the line, the one that existed between what we’ve known as ethical medicine and the new frontier of whatever’s to come. The study centers on (what is now) a momentous 1997 article in The Atlantic by “a prominent oncologist, bioethicist and health care wonk” forecasting future health care scenarios.

This is honestly the most disturbing thing I've seen in a while. Big thanks to Amy Proctor for catching this Catholic school gone wild:

The cult of enviornmentalism is being preached at St. Mary’s Resurrection Elementary School in New Jersey. In this Fox Report below, you’ll see Catholic school children start their day by pledging “allegiance to the earth and all Her sacred hearts”, an allusion to the Sacred Heart of Mary and Jesus. You’ll also hear them sing their song, “Whose the greatest mom of all? Earth Mama!”

Doesn't anybody have shame anymore? Doesn't humanity count at all, especially when we're talking about the young men and women fighting and dying for freedom? Patterico has more:

The AP has published a photo taken August 14 of Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard after he suffered severe leg injuries from a rocket propelled grenade during a firefight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Bernard died a short time later on the operating table. The photo was released despite objections from the Secretary of Defense and Bernard’s family:

“The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.“

Great news. The Scientist deems babies to be foreigners. Click over to Mary Meets Dolly to find out why this is good news:

It never ceases to amaze me how terminology about pregnancy changes depending on whether the life growing inside is "wanted" or not. If the pregnancy is undesired then the embryo or fetus inside a woman is simply a part of her body that she can dispose of if she wants. If the pregnancy is desired, then the embryo or fetus is considered a separate organism from the mother. Case in point, this article from The Scientist about preventing miscarriage which headline proclaims that embryos and fetuses are foreigners that needs safeguarding:

Guess which kind of stem cell is being used in this research. Don't say it too loud because the media and the liberals don't want you to know. But Stop the ACLU is doing its best to get the word out:

This is some pretty good news

Osiris Therapeutics Inc, which is developing a drug to treat a rare condition that affects bone marrow transplant patients, is poised to unveil results from a late-stage trial that could pave the way for the first approved drug in that indication and instill investor confidence in the company.

GvHD is a potentially fatal disease in which immune cells from a transplanted bone marrow recognize the recipient’s body as foreign and attack it.

This is an amazing young man whose parents should be very proud of. Dale has the tale:

Kaleb Eulls is a remarkable young man.

Eulls and his three younger sisters were among 22 passengers on a school bus bound for Yazoo County High School in western Mississippi until a 14-year old female student boarded the bus armed with a .380 semi-automatic handgun threatening to shoot and ordering the bus driver to pull over.

This one from The Media Blog at NRO is worth a chuckle. Click over for the punchline at the end which I'm not going to ruin here:

E.J. Dionne writes in today's Washington Post:

Health-care reform is said to be in trouble partly because of those raucous August town-hall meetings in which Democratic members of Congress were besieged by shouters opposed to change.

But what if our media-created impression of the meetings is wrong? What if the highly publicized screamers represented only a fraction of public opinion? What if most of the town halls were populated by citizens who respectfully but firmly expressed a mixture of support, concern and doubt?

Some Republicans negotiating for socialized healthcare. You knew this would happen, right? Legal Insurrection has the story:

The hot topic at this precise moment in time is the concept of a public option "trigger" being proposed by Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.

Snowe was one of only three Republicans to vote for the February 2009 stimulus plan; without those three Republicans (one of whom, Arlen Specter, formally became a Democrat in April), the stimulus plan would not have passed in its pork-laden, misguided form.

The idea of a trigger is stupid, plain and simple. The concept of giving insurance companies a set period of time to bring down costs, under threat of having their businesses compete with the government, creates the wrong incentives. Cutting costs by rationing care is not what we need, and putting in place a trigger simply will encourage insurance companies to make arbitrary cuts.

Yeah, the ObamaCare protests are getting violent but it seems to be all from the pro-Obama side. Who'd a thunk it, right? Ed Morrisey has more:

California authorities say a clash between opponents and supporters of health care reform ended with one man biting off another man’s finger.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Frank O’Hanlon says about 100 people demonstrating in favor of health care reforms rallied Wednesday night on a street corner. One protester walked across the street to confront about 25 counter-demonstrators.

Jay Anderson says torture has been proven to be effective but he doesn't care. It's one of the best thought out pieces on torture I've read in a while.

The torture apologists are crowing over the release of the CIA Inspector General's 2004 report, which suggests that torture has indeed proven effective - at least in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - in turning the previously uncooperative mastermind of 9/11 into a fount of important information. (Needless to say, I draw completely different conclusions from that fact than does the torture-happy author of the linked piece.)

It figures. Barack Obama's communist Green Czar Van Jones is a Truther.He believes the Bush Administration was behind 9-11 and signed the official 9-11 Truth Document demanding a further investigation.

Isn't this getting a little sickening. The same people who mocked Christians for years as backward brain dead hicks are now trying to convince us to like ObamaCare because we're Christians. Jammie's got the story:

Usually whenever a conservative even mentions the G-word in public, the left goes nuts, the ACLU files suit and the media goes bonkers over the vaunted separation of church and state.

But since liberalism is essentially a religion, they can inject Jesus into any discussion that suits them.

Jill Stanek has become one of the foremost pro-life bloggers. And this is one of the reasons why:

Perhaps the best-kept secret of modern medicine is the link between oral contraceptives and increased breast cancer risk.

While combined oral contraceptives, better known as The Pill, rank as Group I carcinogens according to a 2005 report released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, doctors continue to routinely prescribe the pill for a variety of conditions, ranging from acne to birth control (American Cancer Society, 2008)....

Sad what Dems are trying to throw at Bobby Jindal. If this is the best they can do Jindal might just be the next President. The Corner has more:

Bobby Jindal's political opponents have caught him in an embarrassing political scandal. Apparently, when invited to attend church services around the state, the governor attends them! Critics accuse him of scheduling unnecessary meetings with local officials so that he has an excuse to use a taxpayer-funded helicopter. “I’m glad he goes to church, but I don’t think we ought to be paying his way there,” said one.

It's really beautiful. Take 20 minutes and watch it. You won't be sorry:

At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus leads his troupe through the devastated American landscape, lifting the spirits of audiences along the way. During their travels they discover a man without limbs at a carnival sideshow, but after an intriguing encounter with the showman he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed. Starring Eduardo Verástegui (Bella), Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Fantastic Four) and featuring the debut performance of Nick Vujicic.

How can you be pro-abortion but against sex selective abortion. If you're not even admitting the baby's humanity how can you say this is a female blob of tissue that must be protected. It's illogical and American Catholic has more:

I recently posted a link to a short essay I wrote explaining why I reject leftism. It was rather broad in scope and abstract in content, but now I have a more particular and concrete example to reinforce what I originally wrote. It pertains to news of Hillary Clinton’s recently declared opposition to “sex selective abortion” – that is, abortion that specifically targets the female unborn.